When the vegan world opened for me I was just out of an eating disorder and it was so good to feel that I fed myself healthy things that didn't involve suffering from any part. Today I have built a happy body that can do so many cool things and the food I'm eating just feels so good. It all tastes so fresh compared to the nasty deadness of meaty dishes. Going vegan was, and is, the best damn decision of my life!

_________________"That is some very responsible yolo-ing." - allularpunk"We are simple people, my husband is a mechanic with dirty hands, my daughter is a blue haired lesbian who's favorite activity is making people uncomfortable." - torque

I just realized it, but I served a meal involving Boca chick'n with a gimme lean sausage "crust" and my brother ate it yesterday. He's the one who initially refused everything I made. He is also devouring the chili that I made, having 2-3 bowls a day! He keeps saying that he's thinking more and more about the things he eats and how they make him feel- like eating real sausage makes him feel kinda bad because it was once alive. Baby steps!

I'm at a workshop this week and so far the vegan food has been excellent. For dinner tonight, the vegan option was sweet potatoes and chickpeas (YUM!!) and there were several veggie sides...and Earth Balance for the dinner rolls! And there are 3 different kinds of plant milk in the fridge. I am a happy vegan.

_________________Man, fork the gender card, imma come at you with the whole damned gender deck. - Olives Did you ever think that, like, YOU are a sexy costume FOR a diva cup? - solipsistnationblog!FB!

One of my colleagues and his gf are doing the vegan challenge this month. (The Dutch Vegan Society has an organized challenge for the month of February with support from a website and vegan buddies.) This colleague has always been someone who has questioned me about my veganism, partly because he was curious but he also likes to debate and play the devil's advocate, so while I really didn't mind discussing it with him sometimes (because I knew he was open to hearing serious arguments for veganism), it could be wearying sometimes.

Yesterday, after just two days of doing the challenge and having to deal with his friends' reactions, he said to me "I'm amazed how many people suddenly have an opinion about what I'm eating. It must be tiring always having your choice scrutinized like that and having people wanting to discuss it all the time."

Yes! Thank you!

_________________Ain't no guarantees in life, and nothing that comes out of my vagina can change that. - Erika Soyf*cker

One of my best friends texted me: "Don't laugh, but I'm going vegan too this month." To which I replied: "When are you coming over for dinner?" I really like the idea behind it as well. In fact, it's how I started out myself. "Oh, I'll do this for a month." And 1,5 years later, still vegan. Just never stopped that month. :)

I very rarely get vegan scrutiny, so hearing it from other people is always kind of alarming. At my new job, there are two people who can't have milk just of the people I've met, including one whose son can't have egg either, and we've already swapped cake recipes.

A friend of mine came round for dinner once, and then went vegan for a month almost immediately. She has told me that she's really grateful for it as it kind of enabled her to say "actually, I prefer the meatless things a lot of the time", which is nice. Even if I didn't make a new vegan, I made someone happier about saying what she wants. Which is nice!

_________________Moon - "This is the best recipe in the history of recipes forever."

My omni mom is a soyrizo addict! She will buy like 10 of them and keep them in the freezer. It's kind of cute. I don't like it because I think it smells like meat when it's cooking, and it really turns me off, but I like that she likes it so much.

My omni dad is a huge soyrizo fan. I guess soyrizo goes over well with the omni parents!

_________________"That is some very responsible yolo-ing." - allularpunk"We are simple people, my husband is a mechanic with dirty hands, my daughter is a blue haired lesbian who's favorite activity is making people uncomfortable." - torque

Being told at work that my lunch always smells amazing. Then being asked for recipes for the various things that I have and colleagues tucking into some of the food that I have prepared and them really, really liking it.

My very un-vegetarian mother has been embracing veggie food lately. I've cooked for her a bunch of times over the past few years and I think it finally dawned on her that vegetarian and vegan food can be really good. Whenever I go visit her now she has a bunch of veggie burgers in her freezer. She even made her first-ever vegan "beef" stew the last time I was there. Of course I asked her to tell me what ingredients she was using and she had almost put in worcestershire sauce containing anchovy, but crisis averted. :) This is a pretty dramatic change from when I was first trying my hand at vegetarianism (which admittedly was 13 years ago or so) and she'd try to trick me into eating meat.

Edited to add: She even admitted that my tofu ricotta was an acceptable substitute for her beloved cheese.

I feel like tofu ricotta is one of the best ambassadors of veganism to omnis. When I made the lasagna recipe in VCON for my family, it was the only time that my dad said that it was perfect as is and "didn't seem like it would be vastly improved by adding in some meat" like everything else I had made.

So, a left-handed compliment... is still a compliment! I'm taking it. Haha.

My university regularly publishes vegan recipes in the school newspaper (the most recent edition has cookies and cupcakes!), and I've seen several ads for cooking demos on campus featuring vegan options!

!!!

_________________"One time I meant to send a potential employer a resume, but I accidentally sent them a bucket of puke!

I work at a haunted forest during Octobers. You know, the kind where you wear awesome freaknasty scary make-up and costumes, then hang out in the dark, cold woods until the wee hours of the night, jumping out from hiding spots and telling people you are going to eat their face. It's a really fun job but by the end of the night, pretty much everyone is cold, tired and hungry. I usually bring lots of tasty vegan baked goods and hand them out to people. One time, i offered this girl i vaguely knew some Magical Coconut Bars, and she said "No thanks, i'm vegan." and i was like "OMG THESE ARE VEGAN!" She nommed them right down. It was a really awesome feeling to provide unforseen tasty goodness to a stranger in hungry need.

_________________lack toast intolerant: intolerant of not having toast

I just got an invitation to a wedding and on the RSVP card, they gave the options beef, chicken, fish, and vegan! And this wedding is happening in Toronto, so I actually have faith that the caterer is going to know what vegan really means and not hit me up with a cheese tortellini. (Fingers crossed.)

_________________Ain't no guarantees in life, and nothing that comes out of my vagina can change that. - Erika Soyf*cker

This total omni guy I've met just a couple times through a friend wants to learn about veganism. We went to a vegan restaurant and he loved it (he got the entree that was closest to a slab of meat, which I thought was funny), and then he asked me for some of my favorite vegan dinner recipes. I gave him Quinoa Puttanesca from AFR less than a week ago and he's already made it twice!

My dad's been telling me for a couple weeks now that he's seen a car in my parking lot with vegan bumper stickers. I've been on the lookout but hadn't seen it myself...until today, when I got home and pulled into the last space left and there was the vegan bumper sticker car! I left them a note with my contact info and invited them over for cookies.

_________________Man, fork the gender card, imma come at you with the whole damned gender deck. - Olives Did you ever think that, like, YOU are a sexy costume FOR a diva cup? - solipsistnationblog!FB!

I've been eating some really tasty cakey things lately - when I go somewhere for coffee (there are loads of great independent coffee places in Edinburgh) I usually ask if any of their homemade cakey things are vegan, and then if they say yes I feel kind of obliged to then eat some to show support! It's also made me realise how many places here are doing vegan stuff but not necessarily advertising it well, so you only find out about it if you ask. Recently I had an amazing apple flapjack :)

_________________"Your mother was a superstitious hamster, and your father smelled of elderberry (right before he died of an untreated infection). Now go away, before we taunt you with your credulous magical thinking a second time!" - Desdemona